I’ve had such an incredible time this fall meeting with parents, teachers, and kids in person to talk about some of the strategies I write about in my book, Happy Campers.

One topic that comes up regularly is the importance of learning to keep ourselves calm and model calm down strategies for our kids, as well as helping our kids figure out their own calm down strategies.

In this episode, I am sharing my ideas and tips on how to keep calm and parent on.

Recommended Strategies for Calming Down:

Deep Breathing (Web MD) Most people take short, shallow breaths into their chest. It can make you feel anxious and zap your energy. With this technique, you’ll learn how to take bigger breaths, all the way into your belly.

Get comfortable. You can lie on your back in bed or on the floor with a pillow under your head and knees. Or you can sit in a chair with your shoulders, head, and neck supported against the back of the chair.

Breathe in through your nose. Let your belly fill with air.

Breathe out through your nose.

Place one hand on your belly. Place the other hand on your chest.

As you breathe in, feel your belly rise. As you breathe out, feel your belly lower. The hand on your belly should move more than the one that’s on your chest.

Take three more full, deep breaths. Breathe fully into your belly as it rises and falls with your breath.

Box Breathing (Medical News Today) Box breathing is a simple technique that a person can do anywhere, including at a work desk or in a cafe. Before starting, people should sit with their back supported in a comfortable chair and their feet on the floor.

Close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose while counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs.

Repeat steps 1 to 3 at least three times. Ideally, repeat the three steps for 4 minutes, or until calm returns. If someone finds the technique challenging to begin with, they can try counting to three instead of four. Once someone is used to the technique, they may choose to count to five or six.

What’s Your Favorite Calm Down Strategy?

Quotes

Audrey: “It’s important to be self-aware and know what our personality or setpoint is because it will affect us in our relationships with other people and especially so in our parenting because kids can be somewhat unpredictable and often can kind of create more havoc in our lives. And so they require us to really dig deep and find a calm that we might not normally need to access.”

Audrey: “Especially with kids, oftentimes their behavior, their words, their actions, they didn’t plan to do them, but their lid is flipped and so they’re unable to make good decisions about how to manage those really strong emotions.”

Audrey: “We can flip the script on the idea of a timeout. Sometimes we need a break from our kids for a few moments to regroup and figure out what we want to do. Make it a positive thing where you can say to your kids, ‘You know what? I need a few moments.'”

“HAPPY CAMPERS–full of practical and powerful tools that parents can immediately put into practice–lights a path to help parents nurture a culture of connection in our homes…to help our children become their best selves.”

—Tina Payne Bryson, Ph. D., LCSW, and New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and The Yes Brain